Spooky new patterns for Halloween!

Looking forward to Halloween this year? Obviously things will have to be a little different because of the pandemic: I saw an excellent suggestion online though: rather than trick or treat, why not go on a pumpkin hunt? If everyone puts up pictures of pumpkins in the windows, kids can go for walks and keep their eyes open for all the pumpkins! I’ve taken this idea a step further, with banners for a ghost, a witch and a pumpkin, and I can’t wait to hang them in the windows for them to be admired. 

Fancy knitting your own Halloween banners? They’re perfect for hanging in windows, or on walls, and they’re the same size as my Rainbows in the Windows banners, so you could just swap them over for a few weeks! The pattern is written for one basic banner that can be decorated with your choice of three intarsia motifs: a ghost, a pumpkin or a witch. The patterns for the intarsia portions are provided as both charts and written instructions. If you’re not a fan of intarsia, you can knit the banner without any colourwork and use duplicate stitch to add the motif at the end.

Each banner uses a small amount of aran weight yarn in a limited palette, and is perfect for stash-busting, or you could buy the yarn you need and make a few extra Halloween banners for friends and family from your leftovers. If you have leftovers from your Rainbow banners you’ll just need to get hold of some black aran weight yarn (sock yarn held double would also work well if that’s what you have to hand).

Want to buy the pattern now? You can find it on Ravelry* and PayHip. Use the code SPOOKY to get 20% off until 11.59pm BST, Tuesday 20th October 2020.

The pattern will also available on LoveCrafts later today.

Did you know? Favouriting my patterns on Ravelry helps spread the word about them, so if you like the pattern, please go and add it to your Favourites!  

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Here’s everything you need to know about the pattern…

Sizes

One size: 30.5 cm [12.25 in] wide x 30 cm [12 in] high

Tension

18 sts and 25 rows = 10 cm [4 in] in stocking stitch worked flat on 5 mm (US 8) needles after wet blocking, or size needed to obtain correct tension.

Yarn

You will also need aran-weight yarn in the following colours and amounts, depending on which design you are making:

Ghost

•                 A (black): 130 m (145 yds)

•                 B (cream): 40 m (45 yds)

Witch

•                 A (black): 35 m (45 yds)

•                 B (cream): 60 m (70 yds)

•                 D (purple): 130 m (145 yds)

Pumpkin

•                 A (black): 130 m (145 yds)

•                 C (orange): 55 m (65 yds)

•                 E (green): 5 m (10 yds)

Needles

•                 5 mm (US 8) straight needles

Notions

•                 Fixed stitch markers x 2

•                 Tapestry needle

•                 Bobbins for holding the different yarn colours during colourwork (optional)

•                 Chart row marker (optional)

•                 2 lengths of dowel, 35 cm [14 in] in length and 1 cm [0.5 in] in diameter

•                 Hanging thread

•                 PVA glue (optional)

Pattern notes

The sample is knitted in Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran (aran, 184 m per 100 g ball, 100% acrylic) in 201 Pure Black (A), 202 Champagne White (B), 219 Blood Orange (C), 247 Pansy Purple (D) and 228 Lime Green (E).

Instructions are provided for three designs. For each design, you will need to print out the written instructions for the plain banner (page 3) and either the chart or written instructions for the picture of your choice:

1. Ghost (EASIEST)

a. Chart, page 4

b. Written instructions, pages 5

2. Witch (INTERMEDIATE)

a. Chart, page 6

b. Written instructions, page 7

3. Pumpkin (INTERMEDIATE)

a. Chart, page 8

b. Written instructions, page 9

The pattern is designed to be worked using intarsia for the colourwork portions. If you prefer, you can work the banner in a single colour, then add the colour work at the end using duplicate stitch – the yardages given should be sufficient for you to complete the banner this way. Links to introductions to intarsia and duplicate stitch are provided in the Resources section (see page 10). You may wish to use a combination of intarsia, stranded colourwork and duplicate stitch to minimise ends.

Pattern edited by Jo Torr.

*Ravelry link: proceed with caution if you suffer from photosensitivity.

Yarning Along: Festive plans afoot

I've got a much longer Yarning Along post for you today than usual. Partly to make up for the lack of post last week, and partly because I have plans afoot!

It was Halloween yesterday, and while it's not a festival I celebrate, I did make a token effort with some pumpkin carving, which I enjoyed much more the previous attempts I've made (I think I chose the right knife this year, which made it much quicker than earlier efforts). I also took my kids along to the school Halloween disco, which they enjoyed and I endured. I like parties with music, but it's not that much fun when you're expected not to dance!

  

And now it's November 1st and I can get started on my Christmas knitting almost guilt-free (I have a few commissions that I need to get finished so that I can cast something else on completely guilt-free). First up, I will be casting on some Christmas socks in this very festive yarn from Unbelievawool (it was a club colourway a couple of years ago), and carrying the project round in my brand new Christmas sloths bag from Yarn Magpie. Seriously, the bag is amazing, beautifully made and a lovely size, and who doesn't need festive creatures on their project bags. And once my Unbelievawool socks are done, I'll be knitting some Candy Cane striped socks in the new yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners (which I ordered the second I knew of its existence!).

While the socks will be my out and about knitting, my home project will be a Christmas stocking for a friend's daughter. I made a stocking for my friend's eldest a couple of years ago, and am pleased that a second was requested for their new daughter who arrived earlier in the year.

After the stocking is knitted, I shall be totally indulgent and cast on my Sincerely Louise reindeer head so it can be mounted on the wall in time for Christmas. I'm not certain the deer was designed as a Christmas ornament, but mine shall be adorned with tinsel over the festive period, and maybe even some fairy lights, so it will be super-festive!

You may remember that last year I had not one, not two, but three yarn advent calendars. You may also have noticed that I didn't show you the after photo for the sock yarn blanket. And that's because I still haven't completed all 24 days of squares, oops. My schedule required two squares per day, which was never going to happen, but over the next few weeks I am planning on adding the final 16 squares (days 16-24), so that I can be ready to add this year's advent squares over the course of December (one per day; the yarn will come from an advent calendar swap that someone was organising on Instagram). Here's what the advent section of the blanket looks like at the minute.

And in the spirit of Yarning Along, here's what I'm currently reading: The Power by Naomi Alderman. I heard of this book via Radio 4 ages ago, but was reminded of it last week and ordered a copy straight away. The premise is interesting: what would happen if all girls suddenly had the ability to control electricity and as a result became physically stronger than men. I'm a big fan of well-written dystopian novels, and so far this one is ticking all the boxes.

I finished reading Autumn just before half term, and felt the book was far too clever for me. I am actually considering reading it for the second time as I think there's a lot more I could get out of it now I know that it is character- rather than plot-driven. I have a couple of other books I am very excited to get started with over the next few weeks: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman and Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I loved the His Dark Materials series, so am glad that Pullman is revisiting that world again. I'm saving the book for a clear weekend as I suspect that once I start reading it I won't be able to put it down again! Into the Water is by the same author as The Girl on the Train, which I read very quickly a couple of years ago; I heard an small extract from Into the Water on the radio when it first came out and am excited to see what happens.

Thanks for reading. What are you excited about at the minute?

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Do you have any festive knitting plans? If you do, why not join in with the Vikki Bird Designs' Christmas KAL? All the details can be found in my Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link. Requires a Ravelry account to read; membership is free.

Yarning Along: I had no plans for Socktober

In the online knitting world, October is referred to as Socktober, a celebration of all things sock.* Many people set themselves sock-related challenges, such as knitting their first pair of socks, knitting as many pairs of socks in a month as they can, knitting some socks for charity, or trying a new sock construction. This year I decided that I wasn't going to get involved in any Socktober activities, but here we are, one third of the way through the month, and I have a lot of sock projects on my mind.

This weekend I am going to a family birthday party, and I decided months ago when the save the date card arrived that I would knit a pair of socks for each of the two hosts of the party. And now, four days before the party I have almost one pair of socks (knitted in Regia Pairfect). Which isn't quite enough - I can't give one host a pair of socks and not the other! So for the rest of this week, I'm going to be using every spare minute to whip up a second pair of socks, in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, and keep my fingers tightly crossed that I can get them finished on time.

A little disco sheep progress marker to help me make the socks the same length

I have another half finished pair of socks that have been on the needles for too long. The socks are knitted in some brand new sock yarn that I have been lucky enough to get my hands on before the yarn's official launch next week. These socks have been my out and about/leisurely lunch socks for the past month or so, and while I am very pleased to have one sock complete, I probably should have a full pair by the time the yarn launches next week. In the meantime, here's a tiny sneak preview. Aren't those colours perfect for the season?

This month I also need to knit a pair of socks as a magazine commission (and yes, that is all I can say about them), and I really, really want to cast on my superb self-striping Halloween sock yarn from Strawberry Fields Yarn, but at this point I'm not sure that's going to happen. Ah well, next month I'm sure I'll be casting on some special festive socks to wear in December!

*Socktober didn't start as a knitters event. Socktober was coined by Brad Montague in the US in 2011 as a charity collecting socks locally to distribute to the homeless. This initiative is ongoing, and more information can be found on the Socktober website.

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This title of this week's book is very seasonal: Autumn by Ali Smith. I've been reading this for a little over a week now, and while I don't feel like I've made that much progress I am enjoying the variation in writing styles between chapters, and the relationship between the central characters (a child, her friend, whose is an older male neighbour, and her mother). There have been lots of little gems in the writing that have made this an enjoyable read so far.

As ever on a Wednesday, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Yarning Along: Coffee and cake

There's a theme to this week's Yarning Along, and that theme is coffee and cake.

I'm writing this post in a cafe while I wait for the garage to finish with my car (it's having something replaced under warranty), and making the most of a couple of hours peace, relaxing with a coffee (black, no sugar, thank you) and the latest issue of The Simple Things magazine, which is always lovely (and I am clearly the target demographic as there are often adverts for yarn shops in there, even though it's not a yarn magazine). Some knitting may also happen, or not, I'll see where the mood takes me!

This weekend I spent a lovely evening at Lucy Locket Land for her Macmillan Coffee Morning, which was actually a 12 hour knitathon with coffee, cake and a grand raffle. The evening was perfect, with excellent company, raffle excitement (I didn't win anything), and I picked up a beautiful sock blank in shades of pink and purple that will one day become socks, but for now can be admired, or, at a push, used as a scarf!

The beautiful prize table at Lucy Locket Land

October is officially Socktober for all the social-media-knitters out there, and while I am focusing on commissions this month, I hope to get a couple of pairs off the needles. The Pairfect socks from last week have made a little progress, and I have some Halloween-striped yarn waiting to be knitted up.

Halloween self-striping yarn from Strawberry Fields Yarn

I have now finished reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and while I found the ending pretty much perfect, the book as a whole felt a bit predictable and I did find myself getting bored in places as not much happened. But it was nicely written, and I got through it quite quickly, which I think marks it as a reasonable read. I've moved on to Autumn by Ali Smith, which I selected purely because it's been nominated for The Man Booker Prize (one year I managed to read the whole shortlist before the winner was announced!). I am finding the writing style tricky in places - it is very literary - but the plot and characters are intriguing enough that I am persevering. 

What are you reading and knitting this week? As ever, I'm linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along - head to her blog to see what other people are reading and crafting.